


Fire in the Sky, Fire in the Hole

by deadlegato, DeadLegato After Dark (deadlegato)



Series: Black Cherry Snakes [1]
Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, cherrisnake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:06:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27906451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadlegato/pseuds/deadlegato, https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadlegato/pseuds/DeadLegato%20After%20Dark
Summary: Pentious and Cherri end up trapped together in a basement after a fire ball storm hits Hell. Cherri needs some way to keep Pentious warm, and to keep her mind off bad memories from her past. It was only a one-time thing... right? (Smut)
Relationships: Cherri Bomb/Sir Pentious (Hazbin Hotel)
Series: Black Cherry Snakes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2120145
Comments: 25
Kudos: 70





	1. Afterfire

**Author's Note:**

> I took a few liberties with a request from a reader, but hopefully I hit the points of mental and physical hurt/comfort and trapped together by circumstances for you.

Another day, and Cherri had gotten her hands on another brand-new grenade launcher. She couldn’t wait to test it out, and what better way to ‘pop the cherry’ so to speak on her fresh toy than to antagonize a certain pompous fool of a snake.

She found him evaluating the structural damage on a building they had fought over the previous week, taking notes while various Egg Bois scrambled around with measuring tapes and level lasers. Perfect, she thought. She was about to make egg salad all over the place.

As she steadied her aim, she started to hear a whistling, screaming sound in the sky. She didn’t have time to react before the impact hit directly behind her, throwing her from the roof where she’d been planning on sniping. After falling several floors, she hit the pavement hard on her arm, hearing it cracking as she was thrown end over end.

This couldn’t be right. Extermination day wasn’t for another three months! Wait… no, those weren’t angels coming out of the sky. She’d seen a meteor strike attack only once before, and it was no less terrifying the second time. Burning meteorites were striking the ground all round her. She tried to force herself to stand, but came down again on her knees, the severity of her injuries from the fall rippling through her spine. While not lethal in the same way an angelic weapon, they were incredibly painful if they touched skin, causing long-lasting burns that were almost impossible to treat with painkillers. She’d taken a scattering of the ashes to her arm, which alone was enough to bring a normal demon to their knees.

She was crawling, hoping to make it underneath something for shelter, reaching out as rocks smashed around her, scattering hot ashes on her back and face… when suddenly a chain wrapped around her leg, and she found herself being dragged across the pavement. Small rocks cut into her skin and rubbed abrasively against her, but when she was pulled underneath the safety of what remained of a ceiling, she was grateful.

“You… you?” she asked in confusion, surprised to be cradled in her snake enemy’s arms. He hefted her up and fled down the remains of partially collapsed stairs, followed closely by weepy and trembling Egg Bois. She found herself grabbing onto the lapels of his coat for stability, surprised how easily the snake could handle stairs. She’d been carried away from a meteor storm once before, but that time, it had been in the arms of someone she wanted to touch her.

She could still hear the impacts and smell acrid smoke as the snake pulled her to the far back wall of the basement, where they had the most overhead protection from the booming around them. “Miss Bomb, Miss Bomb? Are you conscious?” the snake asked. A couple of the eggs scrambled about to locate a few rags they could use to make a pillow.

“Why… why did you save me?” she asked in confusion, gritting her teeth against the pain.

“I have seen storms like these before, and I do not hate you enough to leave you out there to be burned to pieces,” he answered, hissing out the last s. “Don’t try to sit up. You’ve been struck in several places. I don’t have anything to treat your burns with. My medical supplies are in my airship, and only a suicidal idiot would run out there now. I can do something else to help you, if you permit me,” he said slowly, cautiously.

“If it makes the burns hurt less? Fine,” she said with a pained flinch.

He opened his hood. “Look deeply into my eyes and listen to me. Your pain is turning into light. You can no longer feel it as it becomes not pain, but just a bright white light. You’re gathering the lights up, and as you pick up the lights, the pain is going away. The pain is draining from your body as the lights float away. Let go of the lights.”

She was surprised to find that it was working, and it was making her tired. Her eye started to close as the snake was rocking her in his arms, cuddling her almost like a baby. Someone… someone special to her used to hold her like that. She could still see him in her mind, his one eye looking at her so kindly. That look, so soft, and yet so distantly sad. The sound of the crashing around her grew distant, letting her fall into a strangely silent sleep.

In her dream, she was running through a dark place. Her one-eyed friend was walking ahead of her. No matter how hard she ran, she couldn’t catch up to him. She was sobbing and holding her arms out, but she couldn’t reach him. She couldn’t…

She woke up with a start, gasping. Her jump startled the snake awake as well. They were still huddled against a back wall of the basement. “How are you feeling?” he asked, helping her to sit up.

“A dull ache all over, but… I don’t feel the burns,” she said in surprise. “What did you do?”

“Hypnotism can be used to relieve pain by blocking it from the brain. Unfortunately, it can also weaken mental barriers, and I seem to have hit a rough spot in your mind. You were calling out a name while you were unconscious.”

She felt incredibly unsteady, and nearly fell over. He had to catch her. “Is the storm over? Can we get out of here?” She didn’t want to talk about… that. Not with him, not with anyone.

“Unfortunately, a massive meteorite hit the stairs and destroyed them. I’m not tall enough to reach the first floor even when I stand as high up on my tail as I can, and when I tried to climb the wall, it started to collapse under my fingers.”

“We’re… we’re trapped down here?! Well, shit… why don’t we… throw some of your Egg Bois up to the first floor so they can find a ladder?”

“You’ve seen what happens when you throw them. Scrambled Egg Bois would be of little help to us.”

“What if I… um… sit in your shoulders and see if you can lift me high enough that I can get out?”

“How do I know you won’t just leave me trapped down here if I do that?”

“Well then, can you lift me high enough that I can pass the Egg Bois out gently?” she asked.

.

“Whoa, steady boy, steady!” Cherri chidded, sitting on Pentious’ shoulders

“It would help if you weren’t choking me with your thighs!” he snapped in return.

“I wouldn’t be hanging on for dear afterlife if you weren’t wobbling!” she argued.

“Ow, ow, ow, easy on the hair!” he whined, using his hands to steady himself against the wall.

“Stop moving and I won’t have to pull it. Uuuuugh, we’re going to have to go with the plan to lift the Egg Bois up. I can’t reach the first floor even on your back. Can’t you go any higher?”

“Without tipping over? No,” he answered. He was on dangerously little of his tail as it was.

“Okay, egg dudes. Grab my hand,” she ordered. Pentious had to grab their hand with his, pass them up to her, and she had to lift them up to the point where they could reach the broken stairs and crawl up them to the first floor. “Find a ladder!” she ordered.

“Excuse me, but those are my minions,” the snake snapped.

“Fine, then you order them to find a ladder. We need a way out of here regardless of who tells them to get it.”

.

They sat down to wait. As they did, Cherri noticed Pentious repeatedly rubbing his arms. “You okay?” she asked him.

“I’m… cold-blooded,” he informed her. “It’s a bit chilly down here for me.” As they waited, she noticed that he seemed to be deteriorating. He was swaying, eyelids getting heavy.

She sighed. “Here, move closer up to me, I can share some of my body heat with you.”

“Thank… thank you,” he sighed, sounding defeated. “You’re still hurt, though. You shouldn’t move too much.”

“Hey, you pulled me away from the burning rocks. Let’s just call this us being even,” she said, sitting next to him.

.

After a bit more time, his head started to droop. He was cold to the touch. “You’re getting worse,” she said slowly. “What’s taking them so long?”

“I don’t have any ladders in the airship, so it is probably taking them some time to find one. You know they’re not exactly fast creatures,” he answered, his voice slow and heavy.

“Crap. This sounds like a trope but take your clothes off.”

“What?! I’ll get colder.”

“I’ll take mine off too to make it easier to share body heat,” she said, flushing slightly. “I’ll lie on top of you. JUST to keep you warm, and JUST to thank you for helping me.”

.

“Feeling better?”

“A little, but still cold,” he answered. He was trying not to breathe heavily from the sensation of her large, round breasts pressing against him. The coldness of his skin had her highlights on, so to speak, and every time she moved, he could feel those erect nipples brushing against his skin. Combined with the knowledge that her exposed femininity was pressed against him between her legs, he was fighting with himself to keep his dicks internalized.

“How are you?”

“I’m not the one who is freezing, so I’m okay.”

“I meant… are your burns hurting? And… you… you sounded quite distressed in your sleep.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she snapped. “Maybe some… ah… physical activity would help warm you up?” She was surprised that a snake could look so… sexy. The curvature of his hips was more pronounced without clothing over the top. He looked so fragile, like she could snap his spine with one hand. Most of the broadness of his shoulders was created by wearing shoulder pads. His entire upper body was more delicate looking than she had expected.

“What kind of physical activity could we do while you lie on top of me?” he asked.

She stared laughing. “Oh, you really are hilariously naïve!” she laughed.

“Whaaaaat?” he asked, his voice turning into a whine.

“We can fuck.”

His face went completely blank with confusion. “You… want… to… fuck… me?!” he asked, each word becoming shriller until you could almost use his last word as a dog whistle.

“Lower your voice before you make my ears bleed. This is just to keep you warm as a thank you for helping me.” That wasn’t… the entire truth. She was feeling… needy. The memories his hypnosis session had brought back to the surface punched holes in what remained of her soul. She was desperate to fill them with something, even if it was snake cock.

“I… I… I would never be so vulgar as to engage in meaningless fornication for warmth…” he stammered. “And Cherri… I wouldn’t want to take advantage of you when you’re in a bad place mentally.”

“I told you, I’m fine. That little nubby thing coming out from under your scales certainly says otherwise.”

He was glad he couldn’t blush, because he would be if he could. “Well… maybe just… just for warmth!” he said quickly.

“Great,” she said, rolling him onto his back. “Hat off though, it’s creeping me out to have it looking at me like that.”

“What are you…?”

“I’m a top,” she answered, using the tips of her fingers to tease the nubs that were just starting to emerge from beneath his golden scales. “Damn, I’ve seen a lot of cocks, but never one that looks like… shhhhhiiiit, you have two dicks?!” she asked. The scrawny little snake with the thick hips had two big dicks to go with them. She would not have imagined he could be that large.

“You don’t have to scream it out!” he stammered, embarrassed.

“This is like something off a sci-fi sex shop,” she said, rubbing her fingers in circles around the tip of the right-hand penis. “If I were watching a porno I’d think you were special effects.”

“Could you… could you stop teasing me like that?” he asked, not wanting to make eye contact with her.

“Well, how about I tease you like this instead?” she asked, partially lowering herself onto him and then pulling back up. “You want it all the way in, or just the tip?” she asked, teasing him by brushing her slit against his cock again.

“All… all the way… in…” he finally agreed.

“Say it louder, I need to know you really want it!”

“All the way in!” he shouted, and she plunged herself down on him, filling herself with his cock, controlling the thrusts as she rode him. She was holding his arms down as she gyrated, his eyes fixed on the motion of her breasts as she rocked. Their sway was hypnotic in its own way. He seemed to have forgotten how to pull his tongue back in his mouth, as it hung out, dripping saliva as he breathed hard and stared at the arc of her full pendulums.

“Yee haw, pardner! Buck for me, bull!” she panted. “You can do better than that, can’t you?!” She was fucking him hard, taking every inch of him inside her, trying to fuck away the memories. They weren’t bad memories; but they had attached themselves to other memories that were not only bad, but horrid. Memories she detested. “Come on, move those hips, I’m trying to warm your muscles! And not just your vocal muscles,” she taunted, as he was moaning loudly with each thrust. “Grab my ass,” she ordered him, moving her hands up around his shoulders. “Grab my ass and hold on like we’re in zero gravity and you’re the only thing holding me down.”

“… That’s oddly specific,” he grunted, but did as he was rold. The very tip of his tail was pounding violently against the concrete floor. The eyes on his tail were rolled up, like they were trying to make their own orgasm face. Even if it seemed strange, having him hold onto her with all his strength... it made her feel safe. Almost... almost loved.

“Harder, hold harder! Scratch me! Make it bleed!”

“I don’t want to aggravate your burns!”

“Stop being a pussy and fuck me like a man!” she screamed. “Damn, damn, I’ve never fucked a nub cock before. I’m going to need to get a bumpy dildo after this, fuck. Put my tits in your mouth!” she ordered. “Suck me, suck me hard!”

He wrapped his tail around one of her legs as they continued pushing against one another, her supporting her weight on his hands, one of her breasts filling his mouth as he whined in pleasure. She focused on the yellow and black of his scales, flashing in the low light. Just think about the light and let go of the pain. Wasn’t that what he said?

She finally climaxed, and the sensation of her pulsating around his cock along with the sound of her voice as she howled brought the snake to finish shortly after. They hadn’t exactly brought condoms, so he came deeply inside her. The way her eyes rolled up and her tongue lolled out was both comical and the most arousing thing he’d seen in a long time.

“Sh… shit, that’s not a cock, that’s a fire hose! Damn, you trying to punch a hole in me?!” she asked, collapsing against him.

“At least we’re both warm now,” he answered between gasps.

A few moments later, they heard scratching near the entrance to the basement and scrambled for their clothing. They had just managed to throw everything back on when the Egg Bois finally managed to drop a ladder down for them.

“Sorry bossman, it took some time to find a long enough one.”

“I certainly found the long one,” Cherri whispered, causing the snake to look away from her sheepishly.

They finally climbed out of the hole, covered in dust, but glad to be safe. “You should have someone professionally look at those injuries. My hypnotism isn’t a replacement for proper medical care, but it can supplement it,” he said.

“Thanks for the advice, but I can take care of myself, Edgelord.”

He sighed. “So, we’re back to normal? Fine. But… Miss Cherri,” he said, slowly taking her hand. “I’ve also lost before,” he said quietly. “Don’t do this. Don’t try to fill the hole with meaningless things. You’ll only end up…”

She punched him hard in the face, almost throwing him back into the hole. “Ow,” he cried, rolling over and holding his face, his split lip bleeding.

“Don’t you fucking tell me what to do,” she snapped, throwing a bomb over her shoulder as she walked away. Pentious and the Egg Bois scrambled away as she left, her fast walk turning into a run. She was trying to run fast enough that she couldn’t feel the tears on her cheeks.


	2. Meteorite Showers Bring Unwanted Houseguests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pentious thought he'd seen enough of Cherri for the day. He was wrong.

“Meteorite showers across the Northern and Western parts of Pentagram City have resulted in significant structural damage and widespread fires. Those who are coming from outside of the area of laugh at the destruction should bring their own sticks and marshmallows, as local stores have sold out.”

Pentious was half-listening to the news on the television as he waited for the microwave to finish. He had almost been trapped in the basement of a partially destroyed building himself earlier that day, along with a certain annoying cyclops that refused to stay out of his business. Fortunately, his own neighborhood had been spared most of the destruction. He’d taken extensive fireproofing measures on the old house when he’d moved in, and he was only going to have to replace some roof tiles.

His hood twitched in annoyance as he heard someone pounding quite rudely on his door. He had a door knocker for a reason. He tried to ignore it, as he wasn’t expecting anyone, but the annoying pounding continued. It took him a moment to realize that the Egg Boi that was supposed to be on door guard duty had been hit by a meteorite earlier that day. Rather than try to find another Egg Boi, he decided to cut out the middleman and answer the door himself.

“Go away, whatever you’re selling, I do not want any! Can you not read the sign? It says no sssssssolicitors,” he hissed.

“Good thing I’m not a selling anything, then,” Cherri said, pushing her way past him and into his house.

“What… what are you doing? What is the meaning of this intrusion?!” he shrieked, angrily moving to block her with his body. He tried to loom over her in an intimidating fashion, but she just kept trying to peer around him.

“Big house like this? You must have a few guest rooms, right?” It was a beautiful old Victorian house, moderate by their standards but flashy by modern comparison. There was an elaborate entrance way, leading to a fancy set of double stairs that were somewhat redundant as they both went to the same overlooking second story landing. Pentious has gone way overboard on the snake theme, however. The door latches were snakes. The bannister was a carved snake. The tile in the entry way looked like scales. The wallpaper had a scale pattern too. It was… somewhat overwhelmingly kitsch. “I had no idea you were this loaded.”

“My money comes from various patents that I own, so while it comes in at a steady rate, if I needed a quick infusion of income I don’t have much that I can readily convert into cash at hand,” he explained. Normally he would have finished with ‘not that I would expect you to understand’, but he wasn’t feeling it. Wait, why was he bothering to explain this to her? “But what does this have to do with…”

“I’m moving in for a few days,” she responded.

“Excuse me?!”

“My apartment was hit by a meteorite,” she said, her voice suddenly low. He didn’t think he’d ever heard her sound down before. “Direct hit. I couldn’t even get close because the fires were too intense.” 

“Oh… oh, but… why are you here bothering me??? Why not go to the hotel with your stripped freak friend?!” he asked. She had jumped over his tail and was walking through his place uninvited, looking at his décor.

“Nice, how much did you pay someone to paint that picture of you? You could have just taken a selfie. To answer your question, as much as… as nice as the Princess is, I don’t _want_ someone to be nice to me right now. Someone trying to pity me would just… make it… worse,” she said slowly, rubbing her arms and looking distant. “Look, I just need somewhere to stay until I find a new apartment where I don’t have to hear about rainbows and I’m so sorry and crap like that. I’ll even pay you rent. Unless, of course, you’d prefer another pity fuck.”

“Please, is sex all you can think of?” he asked, frustrated. “Fine, you can stay for a few days, but only because I need you to continue being my rival. What good is the story of the struggle of a truly epic protagonist without a rival?” If he were being completely honest, no one really paid attention to him before he and Cherri had become rivals. Having someone who wanted to kill him was better than having no one who cared if he was alive.

.

“This is my guest room,” he said. If this was his guest room, she couldn’t imagine his own room. It had a four-poster bed with velvet curtains, a full dressing table with mirror, a massive closet… heck, this one room was bigger than her former studio apartment. “It has an attached half bath with a shower. My room is down the hallway.” After a pause, he continued, “There are some extra clothes in the room a former friend left behind. If any of them fit, feel free to wear them for the time being. I can’t wear them and they’re just taking up space. Now if you will excuse me, you caught me in the middle of dinner preparations. My food is probably cold by now.”

“Aren’t you going to offer me anything to eat? I did just lose everything I own.” She was following him down the hallway, not leaving him alone to try to think for even a moment.

“But I hate you!”

“Is that an excuse to be a bad host?”

She had him there, as she’d caught him right in the Victorian manners. “Fine, I can… microwave something for you.”

Cherri frowned as she looked through the snake’s kitchen. He had supplies for making breads, cookies, and every other kind of baked sweet she could imagine… but almost no ingredients for actual meal cooking. His freezer was packed to the brim with frozen meals for singles, which he’d offered to heat for her, but the fridge was almost barren. The microwave seemed to be one of the few modern technologies he had thoroughly embraced. “What’s with the state of your kitchen?” she finally asked. “I didn’t imagine you being the type to live on TV dinners.”

“I’m unparalleled at baking, which is exact chemistry, but when it comes to cooking… I… I could probably burn water,” he said with a sigh and a shake of his head. “And don’t even think of asking the Egg Bois unless you want whatever they can throw in a pot and boil.”

“I thought you were from Victorian England. Isn’t boiled meat kind of your thing?”

“Just because I lived through it doesn’t mean I enjoy it,” he answered her coldly. “And I was born in India, during the… occupation or colonization, whichever you want to call it. My mother was native to the continent.”

“You’re half Indian, really? That means you can at least make curry, right?” Cherri asked.

“I know very little of my maternal culture. I was shipped back to England for boarding school and to be raised by my paternal grandparents the second I was old enough for it,” he answered. “If I ever met my maternal ancestors down here, I doubt I could speak to them. Sometimes I wonder if abandoning my mother’s heritage is why I’m in a cobra’s body now.”

“Well get your airship ready tomorrow, we need to go grocery shopping!”

“We, Missy?”

“I’m not going to make a huge home cooked meal and then make you just watch while I eat it with your sad little TV dinners. You can take the cost off my rent. I bet I can teach even you how to cook.”

“Yes, well… good luck with that losing bet,” he said dryly, rolling his eyes.

“Put that forked tongue back in your mouth, I’m always up for a challenge.”

.

Pentious was almost asleep when the annoying pounding came again, this time at his bedroom door. At first, he thought it was the Egg Bois, but he then realized it was too loud and too high up on the door for them. “What is it now?!” he demanded, sitting up and rubbing the eyes on his face. The rest of his eyes blinked, blurry from being startled awake.

The door creaked open and the cyclops entered, wearing one of the oversized leftover shirts she’d found in the guest room. “Despite all that crap I talked earlier, I don’t… I don’t think I want to be alone tonight. Can I sleep in your bed?” She’d lost a lot of things she couldn’t replace if her apartment had burned, including… including her pictures of the one she’d been thinking of all day. She couldn’t handle laying alone in a bed, thinking about those pictures. Wondering if they made it through or not. They were in a fire-resistant safe, but who knew if she’d be able to find it if her building was reduced to ashes?

.

The snake’s heated sheets felt incredible. She never imagined heated sheets would be something she could want in Hell of all places. He was surprisingly comfortable, squishier than she would have anticipated from his looks, as were his mattress and sheets. This was the good shit, with a thread count higher than her weekly income she guessed. His pillows were scented. Snake boy was fancy pants enough to have scented sheets.

“I’ve lost all my material possessions in a fire before,” the snake suddenly spoke up.

“What did I say? No pity or sympathy parties.”

“It’s not a sympathy party, because I can’t give you any comfort. I’d be lying if I said it gets easier in time or that they were just things. The soul does tend to… get attached to things.” He yawned, his mouth impossibly long and wide. “Try to get some sleep. Perhaps in the morning you’ll be able to see how bad your apartment is. Maybe it won’t be as damaged as you think.”

“I hope so,” she sighed. “You realize that when things go back to normal, our interactions go back to normal and I’m back to smashing your eggs and trying to kill you, right?”

“Sensible. What good would my story be without you there to be my rival?” he asked. “The only way having you here is tolerable at all is knowing this is only a temporary situation!”

“Of course,” she answered. “But since I’m here and all… another roll in the sheets for funsies?”

“… We have never rolled in the sheets before, only in the dirt.”

“You need to stop taking everything so literally,” she answered, positioning herself on top of him.

She didn’t bother to remove the oversized shirt, instead just pushing it up to her armpits so that only as much of her as was necessary to do the job was exposed. When the snake whimpered in delight, his tongue would flicker, and that was stupidly adorable. He couldn't stop staring at her breasts, as if now she were the hypnotist. His fingers were digging into her back. The pleasure of being held tightly was greater than the pain of his clawed tips in her skin. Not like anyone would be able to see the little holes he was making amongst all of her blood red freckles.

He was surprisingly docile, letting her take the lead without question, deciding how deep and how fast she wanted him inside her. She wasn’t sure if he was okay with being dominated, or if he was just so sex-naïve that he didn’t know how to do anything differently. Maybe this was his idea of being a gentleman. His mind was a mystery to hers. Why was she even bothering to think about it? She should be focusing on the very gentle brush of his nubby penis inside her, lightly bumping her clit as she grinded against him, pushing her towards climax.

He did make a very light breathing noise in his sleep, but it was nothing like the snoring she’d experienced from other partners. It was inherent to how his breathing as a snake was different from her own, his lungs built in a strange way. It was so strange, to feel both the warmth of the sheets and the serpent’s cool body against her.


	3. Cooking with Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cherri tries to teach an old snake new tricks.

Pentious agreed to take her back to her block with his mini airship in the morning. Okay, he didn’t so much “agree” as he got tired of her doing her own rendition of the “annoying pigeon meme” behind him while he was trying to work. How a living demon could actually make those sounds, he had no idea. They weren’t normal. She said she wasn’t going to stop until he agreed to give her a ride. He thought she’d stop after the third time around. He was so, so wrong.

When they arrived, things did not look good. To her surprise, he allowed her to take some of his Egg Bois down into the ashes with her, helping dig through the heap that had been her building. She had told them she was looking for a fire safe but had refused to tell them what was in it that she needed.

To her grateful shock, one of the Egg Bois found her safe and dragged it to her, delighted to get a kiss on the shell as a thanks. After checking that the contents were as safe as could be expected, she clutched it to her chest and sobbed. She could replace her clothing and electronics, if she had that.

“You’re crying,” the snake noted, pointing close to her face.

“Sh… shut up, do you know how much ash I got in my eyes?? Anyway, turn this ship West. We need to go grocery shopping, remember?”

.

“How can someone who is so good at building tiny, delicate machines not even know how to chop a pepper?!” Cherri laughed at his sad attempts. “They’re all different sizes. How can you expect them to cook evenly like that?”

“I… I always had servants to do this for me when I was alive!” he snapped.

“You’ve been dead for a hundred years! That’s no excuse. Give me your hands. Here. Curl your fingers up on this hand so you don’t cut them. Now hold the knife like this… no, not like you’re a serial killer in an eighties slasher film! You’re making dinner, not killing sinning teenagers!”

“I’m a demon,” he hissed. “How else do you expect a demon to hold a knife?!”

“I expect even a demon to know that you hold knives differently for different purposes,” she answered back with a chortle. “You know, I’ve been… I’ve been thinking all day about something that’s bothering me.”

“Did the unusual level of exertion sprain your brain?” the snake asked sarcastically.

“Don’t insult the girl who has her hands on the knives you’re holding,” she snapped back. “Why are you so cranky? Does snakey-boy need another session in the bouncy castle? Does he?”

“Are we concentrating on cooking or sexing?”

“Come on, be a good sport. I haven’t decided which dick is better yet,” she grinned, enjoying his embarrassed and awkward face. “Say, do you have names for them?”

“I do not name my genitalia.”

“Huh. Guess I’ll just have to call them Bert and Ernie then.”

“You are not naming my penises Bert and Ernie! Why are you so aggravating?!”

“Because I’m your rival, of course. Actually, what I wanted to ask is, why do you smell like a candle store?”

“It… it gets dry in Hell during the so-called winter months, and my scales need to be kept moisturized!”

“With a body like yours, you must buy lotion in industrial-sized containers. You know, Angel once bought an industrial-sized barrel of lube, and…”

“And I do not wish to know, if you want me to keep any appetite to eat this food after we put all this effort into making it.”

.

“Your cooking is… acceptable. I guess it is nice to know that you have at least one skill befitting the fairer sex.” He wasn’t sure this came anywhere near the kind of thing that might be called curry in India, but it was what Cherri had insisted on making.

“Sexism isn’t sexy, you know,” she responded. “Another question: When I turned on your television, it was on the Food Network, but you don’t know how to cook?”

“Watching someone on television does not make one an expert in doing it! I was only watching because they get the mortal Cutthroat Kitchen show. Alton Brown is a master of evil. You could learn a thing or two from him.”

“Stop sticking your tongue out at me! Is that the only insult you know?”

“I’m a snake, that’s how I smell and taste.”

“I know. I’m getting you riled up because it’s funny. You should watch your blood pressure. Do you have a blood pressure?”

“Of course, I do! I’m only figuratively heartless.”

“But literally cold blooded,” she noted. “This was good, but I should have used a few more peppers. I prefer heat,” she said, getting up from the table.

“Did you just throw your dirty plate in the sink without even rinsing it?” Pentious demanded. “When the dishwasher is right there?!”

“The dishwasher is full of clean dishes.”

“Then unload it first and put your dirty plate in the now-empty dishwasher!” he cried in exasperation, making hand and hood gestures to emphasize his points. Even his hat was getting in on it, making a variety of odd expressions at her.

“That sounds like… a problem for future me,” she answered, waving him off.

.

Cherri woke up when she heard a familiar voice calling out to her. It was a voice she had longed to hear again so many times. Unable to believe what she was hearing, she slipped out of bed, her bare feet light on the carpet.

He was calling out for her, calling out for help. She ran down the stairs, running towards the sound of his voice. “Help me,” the voice called. “Help me. I’m burning. Help me.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” she screamed as she forced open the large French doors leading into the back yard. The only light was the slight red cast of the fake stars overhead. She could feel alternating patches of scraggly grass and naked dirt under her. It was too dark to see much of anything, and she nearly ran into a chair. “Where are you?”

She saw it. There was a figure, wrapped in flames. “Help, I’m burning,” the voice whispered, a choked cry for help.

“I’m coming, I’m coming, I…”

The ground gave way beneath her and she was in water, confused and sinking. The water was pitch black, stinging and blinding her one eye. She tried to kick and claw at the water, but she didn’t know which way was up. She was tumbling end over end. Of course, it would help if she knew how to swim…

Suddenly, arms were wrapped around her and she was pulled above the surface of the water, gasping, digging her fingers deeply into the other body. Heavy coughs left her, and her body shook.

“Miss Bomb, what in the nine circles is wrong with you?” the snake asked in confused annoyance, dragging her back to the side of the pool. “Why are you trying to swim in the middle of the night without even turning any lights on?”

“Where is he?!” she asked, trying to look around wildly. Her vision was still blurred from the pool chemicals. “Where… where is…” it took her a minute to realize no one was there. No one had ever been there.

“You’re lucky I couldn’t sleep, and I heard you shouting. You could have drowned yourself playing around like this,” he scolded, carrying her to the pool exit. Her legs didn’t want to work. He had to help her up the stairs. “I would imagine that to be most unpleasant, even if not permanently lethal.”

“I was… I was… sleep walking.”

“… Sleep walking? Cherri, I watched you from my upstairs window once I heard your voice from outside. You went straight out my back doors and towards the pool with intent. The way you were walking was no meandering accident.”

“I thought… I thought someone was calling me…” she touched her head. It was throbbing. “Hey, you used my first name without calling me Miss first. You’re slipping, Edgelord.”

He gave her an unamused frown. “After you shower off and change clothes, you should… I hate to say it, but you should come to my room again.”

“Why, you looking for your second round of thank you for saving my afterlife sex?” she asked.

“No. Miss Bomb, please. I told you, I saw you go towards the pool with intent. You even opened the safety latch I use to make sure the eggs don’t accidentally drown themselves. Someone, or something, tried to lead you out there. Something wanted to drown you, and I’m worried… that it might be your own mind. You’ve been through a lot lately.”

“Are you suggesting that I’m suicidal?? That sure would be odd for, you know, someone who can’t die because I’m _already dead_.”

“Not being able to die and not being able to experience the feeling of death are two different things, Miss Bomb. My recent experience with Alastor reminded me of that quite sharply. I only suggest that it’s a possibility, although I am not sure whether that would be more or less dangerous than if an external force sought to end you.”

“Why would you care if something happened to me? You could just slither in and take all my turf.”

“Miss Bomb, how many times do I have to tell you? A protagonist is nothing without his antagonist. Come on now, you can shower in my bath. It’s larger than yours. I’ll have the Egg Bois bring you a change of clothing.”

.

He’d put her into a heavy sleep state, as trying to do a deep dive into her mind to find the source of the problem in the middle of the night when they were both simultaneously exhausted and wound-up from adrenaline sounded like a bad idea. Unlike Pentious, who breathed delicately in his sleep, Cherri snored. Cherri snored… a lot. She was curled up to his side, still slightly shivering. He felt a twinge of… well, it was a strange sensation. He was having a hard time putting a word to the feeling. Helplessness, maybe? He couldn’t do anything for her, as he had no heat of his own to share. No matter how much he wanted to, his body would never be able to warm hers. The touch of his hands would never remove the cold from her face or her fingers. The only thing he could do was coil his tail around her, as she seemed to enjoy being held. Her expression relaxed, and subconsciously, she reached out to stroke the source of the comforting hug.

Pentious sighed deeply and shook his head, trying to shake away the dark cloud in his thoughts. He doubted he was getting any sleep that night. He felt… guilty. He would never admit it to feeling that way, especially not to her, but if he’d made a mistake with his hypnotism and done something to permanently damage her mind… Well, that was why he tended to avoid using it. Even though it was technically his strongest innate demonic power, even more so than his venom.

Well... not much he could do about that now. How had Cherri put it? A problem for... future me. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you catch my shout-out to AxelGear's Arackniss fan stories? :P


	4. When it rains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to finally put out the fires

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Musical influences for this chapter
> 
> Colors of Rain - VNV Nation  
> The Hanging Tree Piano Cover arranged by ThePandaTooth  
> Panty and Stocking - D Rock City

Cherri slowly drifted awake to realize it was far later in the day than she had intended. She was still wrapped in the snake’s blankets, having hogged many of them for herself during the night. A storm had come in overnight, brightening Hell’s red sky with electric lightning and window-shaking thunder. At least this would put out any remaining meteorite fires. Although with the way it was coming down, she imagined it would cause some flooding. If it wasn’t one thing in Hell, it was another.

She could hear a piano being played from somewhere in the house. While Angel had noticed a snake-themed organ aboard his full-sized airship, she hadn’t been aware that he could also play the piano. It made sense, once she thought about it. The only thing she didn’t understand was how he worked the pedals. Maybe with the tip of his tail?

She looked out the window, racing raindrops down the glass. The pool in the back yard seemed so obvious now. Why hadn’t she noticed it before? At least… she hadn’t consciously noticed it. Yet she’d ended up in it. How?

A sudden frightening thought crossed her mind, and she raced down the stairs. She found Pentious in a side room. The Egg Bois were gathered around, enraptured by their boss as usual. He was so engrossed in his time with the piano that he didn’t notice her watching him. Seeing him at the piano let her calm her racing heart and shaking nerves. He was really playing it. It wasn’t just in her head. She’d had enough hearing and seeing things that weren’t there. It was a nice piano as well, sleek and black, with snake-themed legs. She didn’t know the kinds of pianos by name, but it was the open-topped type she associated with expensive concerts for elite patrons.

“You’re kind of okay at that,” she said when he stopped playing. He jumped.

“Oh, Miss Bomb. You’re awake. I thought after everything that had happened you needed sleep, so…”

“What was that song? Something you learned from the grand old opera when you were alive.”

“You might be surprised to know, Miss Bomb, that my knowledge of popular culture did not stop when I died, even if I am a bit rusty on my sex slang. That song wasn’t written until… sometime around 2005, I think, if I am remembering right. It is called Colours of Rain. It was stuck in my head because of the weather. If you insist, I will prove that I am capable of keeping up with modernity…”

He started another song. It took her a moment to recognize the tones of “The Hanging Tree.” She hadn’t expected him to be familiar with that movie series, let alone able to play music from it.

“Wait, wait…” she said, and he stopped. “Start over. I want to sing.” Such a melancholy song for a dreary day. Her singing voice was incredible, beyond what Pentious would have imagined given how much her speaking voice annoyed his ears. If she always sounded like that, perhaps she wouldn’t hurt to listen to.

She actually flushed slightly when the Egg Bois gave her excited applause. Pentious programmed them to applaud everything he did. That was the only reason they were clapping, right? She turned to see him giving her a smug smile. “You know you can call me Cherri when it’s just us in the house, right?” she asked. “Save the Miss Bomb for when we’re out fighting turf wars.”

“I don’t think we will be fighting any turf wars today,” Pentious noted. “That rain is really coming down.”

“You afraid to get a little wet, snakey?”

“I love water. It just happens that my suit is expensive enough that it is dry clean only. Why do you think I have a pool? Swimming and soaking in the bath are two of my favorite activities. When I am an Overlord, I am going to have an Olympic-sized pool and have a four-demon jacuzzi for my bathtub,” he said, eyes shining with delight at the very thought of it. “What do you want when you become an Overlord? I mean… umm… what drives you to want to be one?”

“I want to take over the system so I can smash it,” she answered. “I’m tired of watching everyone I care about get stepped on by it.” She suddenly froze up and shook her head. “I don’t know why I just said that.”

“… That… explains your fondness for that song. Well, anyway… that reminds me of the important conversation we need to have. I am worried that I might have touched a sore spot when I hypnotized you to remove the pain. I want to be sure that I didn’t accidentally damage something in your psyche. I know you have very little brains to work with, so I would feel most responsible if I wounded them.”

“Cute, Edgelord. But… is that possible?”

“Very much. I would like to do another session with you, just to be sure nothing is mentally askew as a result of my actions.”

She wasn’t sure she was comfortable with that. She was okay being naked with him for meaningless sex, but letting him into her naked and unguarded mind? That was completely different from having him treat her burn pain.

.

“An analogue tape recorder?” she asked. “And here you almost had me convinced you weren’t living in the past.”

He set it down on the table between them. “It’s more difficult to edit than a digital recording. This is for both of our safety. You will know exactly what was said, and I will be able to prove that I didn’t implant ideas in your head or cause intentional harm. As much as I am going to _enjoy_ the day when I finally crush you beneath my coils, I have no intent of scrambling your brains.”

“Was the egg pun intentional?”

“Perhaps.”

“What do you want me to do, lie down on the couch?”

“Whatever makes you comfortable. I’m not going to put you totally under, just lower your defenses enough that you’ll give me honest answers so we can figure out what is going on here. Now, Miss Bomb… Cherri, would you mind looking into my eyes for me?”

“Why, you want a deep ro… ro… man… tic…”

“You hypnotize faster than most, you realize,” he sighed. There was an ache between his eyebrows, and Cherri was the source. “I suppose we should just get right to it, then, and neither of us really appreciates small talk. Why did you run towards the pool last night?”

“I had to put the fire out.”

“The fire?”

“The pictures were burning. The only pieces I had left were burning. I had to put out the fire. “I wasn’t there to protect them when the fire started, and they’re all I have left,” she said quickly. Her voice was tense, her body ready to fight. “I fucked up, I fucked up, I’m in trouble… I’m always in trouble… This is what I do. I fuck up, and then I pay for it. I fucked…”

“Cherri, stop it. Stop it now,” he ordered, and she went silent. “You’re safe. You don’t have to fight the fires anymore. The rain will put out any remaining flames. Do you see the fires? The rain is drowning them. No more beating yourself up over things you can’t control."

“Will the rain wash away my memories?” she asked, the frantic tone in her voice increasing. He was trying to calm her, but unintentionally having the opposite effect.

“No! No one can take your memories away without your permission. They’re yours. Part of your soul.”

That finally got her to lower her shoulders and whistle out a deep breath, unclenching her jaw. “I’m afraid that if I let go of the pain, I’ll forget,” she said suddenly. It was an unprompted admission, and Pentious was flustered because he didn’t know how to deal with it. “I can’t let it go. I’m not letting it go.”

“No one is asking you to. All I’m asking you to do is not to hurt yourself. I’m going to slowly release you from my control be counting backwards from five. You will remember, you’re not to blame for the fires. You don’t need to be punished.”

.

“How are you feeling? No residual effects?”

“I hate to say it but… better.” She yawned and stretched out as he removed the tape from the recorder. “Here. Your choice to listen to it or not.”

“Why not just let me remember it, then?”

“Because then you wouldn’t have the option of not listening.”

She paused, looking down at it. “I’ll decide later. But… um… Edgelord? Thank for saying I don’t need to be punished. That was kind of what I needed to hear. I’m just… guess I’m used to the idea that I can’t make mistakes without someone extracting a price for it.”

“That is… unfortunately true, living in Hell. It’s definitely true when we’re out there fighting for territory. But for now, just let yourself have this one.”

“I never knew you could be this nice. You going soft on me, old man?” she asked, back to teasing him as usual.

“You just wait until the rain lets up, Little Missy. Then you will see how… how not-nice I can be!” he answered with a hiss and a flick of his tongue.

“If it’s your suit you’re worried about, then take it off and let’s go fight in the rain right now!”

“I… I’m not wearing anything under it. I’ll be naked other than my hat if I take my suit jacket off.” His hat didn’t seem like it wanted to go out in the rain, either.

“Nothing under it? Kinky.”

“I can’t wear shirts! They rub against my chest eye!” he snapped, frustrated. “I get enough rubbing with the eyes that touch the ground.”

“Mmmmm, a conversation about rubbing one out? Double kinky. I think you might be sexually frustrated, snakey.”

“… Are you intentionally trying to get a rise out of me?”

“Oh, sweet Lucifer. Angel is right. You have got to watch what comes out of your mouth!” she laughed, nearly doubling over with a joy-tear in the corner of her eye. “Let’s go run in the rain!”

“We could be hit by lightning! Also, I don’t run, I slither,” he said indignantly. 

“Don’t get such a dry noodle,” she said, trying to pull him to the back door.

.

“There. I am outside in the rain. Are happy now?” he asked in annoyance, crossing his arms over his chest. He did not enjoy being a nakey snakey. “You do realize I can see _everything_ through your wet shirt?”

“You do realize I don’t care, right?” she asked, jumping in puddles. “You’ve already seen it all.

“But the neighbors…” he said, partially hiding himself behind a support pole.

“Fuck the neighbors, let them stare! They can burn up in jealousy. Come on, let’s play!” she said, grabbing his arm. He tried to resist but the wetness made the grass slippery, and he couldn’t dig his scales in completely. He ended up falling over on top of her, his face planted firmly between her breasts. “Well, this is certainly a trope, isn’t it?” she asked. The snake groaned in response. “You ever done a round of outdoor fucking, snake, or are you too shy?” she asked, digging her fingers into his shoulders.

“Are you really always thinking of sex?”

“In the words of a good friend… we’re breaking the news now boys, ask girls. We’re full time horny too.” She leaned up and kissed the snake and he reciprocated, their tongues pushing against one another in a miniature recreation of a turf battle as their bodies settled into the wet ground.

There was something to be said about the sensation of cold rain falling down the snake’s scales as the mammalian cyclops was so warm against his belly. If she were any hotter, steam would be rising off her where the rain hit. There was a certain intense vulnerability to being completely naked, buried deeply inside her, outside in the rain that was missing in a bedroom with locked doors and pulled curtains.

Her legs were tightly wrapped around his waist as he was pushing deeply into her, more enthusiastic than he had been in their previous encounters. He could almost imagine their panting breath coming out as fog from their mouths. He felt so hot in his hips, so hot, he just wanted to thrust and thrust as he heard her squealing and groaning beneath his weight. Her eye was squeezed closed and she was biting her lower lip as her fingers clawed his back and pulled his hair. She looked so… so beautiful that he couldn’t hold his orgasm back. For once in his afterlife he let go of all pretense of gentlemanly behavior and let a primal scream of pleasure disappear into the sound of thunder. When she finally came shortly after him, her wild scream frightened birds from the trees.

Meanwhile, back in the warmth of the house, the Egg Bois were drawing pictures of their boss and Cherri kissing very sweetly and chastely, with Cherri in their representation of a bridal dress.

.

After a necessary shower to warm Pentious back up and get the caked layer of mud and shed grass off of both of them, Cherri relaxed on the couch in a bathrobe she’d snitched from Pentious. It was far too big for her, being built for his massive body, but that strangely made it more comfortable. The snake had prepared steaming hot tea, and without being asked, had even kindly brought her a mug. Tea wasn’t her thing, but a warm drink after the cold outdoors was welcome.

“Since it’s too rainy to fight, let’s invite Angel over for a movie night!” She was pleased with her rhyme.

“Miss Bomb, I am _graciously_ allowing you to stay in my house because you are in a dire housing situation. I have no desire to have the stripped freak in my house making a mess of this place as well.”

“Come on, don’t be a wet noodle! We can watch something really scary with the thunder and lighting for ambiance,” she encouraged, saying the last word like aaehm-bee-yance.

“Miss Bomb, have you thought about how you are going to explain to your dirty-minded associate why you are living in my house? He will immediately assume we are having sex!”

“… We are having sex. We just fucked in the rain.”

“I… I meant like… sex in a relationship,” he stammered.

“What’s wrong? You embarrassed by the idea of anyone thinking we’re dating?” she asked, frowning, her mouth sharp.

“We’re supposed to be mortal enemies locked in great battle for the property of damnation!” he said theatrically, clenching his hands and rising up on his tail with his hood open.

“You can stop being a drama king and slither down,” she sighed, not intimidated by his puffing up. “I’m renting a room from you until I find a new apartment and that’s all Angel or anyone else who might want to stick his nose in our business needs to know. If you think about it, it makes you look pretty good. After all, if I were so great and powerful, shouldn’t I have a place I could stay on my own turf?? Instead I’m having to pay my archrival to stay on his turf.”

She could tell by his meltingly happy expression that she knew how to play the snake like a fiddle. “Why yes… yes, it does.”

“Great, then I’m calling Angel and inviting him over. Problem solved.”

“F… fine, but some house rules apply! No loud noises after midnight, no making a mess, clean up after yourselves…”

“Two of those rules are the same thing.”

“Don’t interrupt me while I’m talking, Missy. No shoes in my house. Shoes stay at the door.”

“Come on, Angel never takes his boots off. We’ll wipe them clean and dry before he comes in, please?”

He slumped in slight resignation. “Fine, I guess, but then… no feet on the furniture! Shoes or not. And no… bodily fluids… on the furniture either.”

“Angel and I don’t fuck. He’s not into vaginas,” she informed him, her voice clipped and harsh. “We’re just friends. You got that through your scaley skull?”

“I do not trust your friend not to just… leak…” the snake said, looking disgusted.

“Wait, you think Angel just goes around like… oozing lube out of his pores or something?”

“He’s a porn star, how should I know!?”

“Oh, you shut-in little celibate,” she snorted, shaking her head. It would be funny if it wasn’t sad.

“I’m not done! No breaking, vandalizing, or otherwise damaging anything. If you cause damage to it, you have to pay for it!”

“Pentious, I’m not a shitty houseguest. I’m not going to trash your place and Angel won’t either. Well, I mean, we would if I weren’t living here and we wanted to get your goat, but… Now, any other rules you want to spit out?”

“Do not move any of my possessions. Everything is exactly where I like it!”

“Is that all, dad?” she asked, rolling her eyes.

“… Is that a sex joke? That’s a sex joke, isn’t it?!”

“No. If I called you daddy, that’s a sex joke. Calling you dad is a joke about how you’re acting like my father laying out rules for a sleep over,” she responded through gritted teeth. How could he be both so smart and so thick?

“I am not acting like your father! If I were, no boys would be one of the rules. Anyway, the final rule is that I may add more rules at any time as I see fit, if I find you doing something that annoys me. It is my house, and as long as you live under my roof, you will follow my rules little Missy!”

“You know, if you keep being wound up so tight, your springs are eventually going to snap. You need to learn to relax. And Angel and I are just the experts to teach you the art of not giving a fuck!” she said, dialing his number on her phone.

“Oh, goody. I cannot wait,” he said sarcastically, propping his head up with one fist against his cheek.


	5. Conclusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter of this part of the story. What could be coming next? Hmmm...

“Hey, Edgelord!” Cherri called, causing Pentious to give her a disgruntled grunt in response. “Angel wants to know if he can bring his brother over for movie night.” During the working hours of the day, Cherri, Pentious, and Angel continued on trying to kill one another over turf as usual. After hours? They'd been having weekly movie nights together for over a month. Angel wanting to bring his brother was new. Pentious hoped that didn't mean he'd have another enemy to fight during their working time. 

“Fine, fine, I know you’d just beg and plead until I allowed you to do it anyway,” he answered, clearly annoyed.

“Edgelord says yes,” she answered.

“Do you have to call me Edgelord every time Angel comes over??” he snapped.

“You prefer old man?” she asked. “Come on, we have to keep up the act in front of Angel and his bro.”

“I suppose you are right, Missy.”

“Missy? Not even Miss Bomb?”

“We are… keeping up the act, are we not?”

“How about this? I’ll order the pizza tonight, and I’ll even pay.” That was different. Usually she just made Pentious not only order… but pay. What do you take on yours? Do you need one that’s half mouse, half rat?”

“What do you think I am, a common garden snake?! I am a king cobra!” Pentious answered her, puffing up. “The most regel and powerful of the snakes to bear the cobra name.”

“… So what does a king put on his pizza?”

“All this time, and you still do not know what I like to eat,” he answered, rolling his multitude of eyes at her. “What does Mister Arackniss take?”

“Angel said any kind of meat pizza.”

“I am fine with this idea as well. Maybe not sausage. Sausage tends to give me minor air regurgitations.”

She took this to mean it gave him the burps. “Angel said his brother always complains if they call it authentic Italian because most of it… isn’t.”

.

Angel and Arackniss arrived remarkably on time, in a car that Pentious guessed belonged to the brother. The brother was about half Angel’s size, darker in color, with a frightening scowl on his face. Something about that scowl made a little quiver in Pentious’ chest, one that he quickly smashed down.

“Edgelord, this is Arackniss,” Angel introduced. “Big bro, Edgelord.”

“Excuse me, but my name is not Edgelord! It is…” 

“Sir Edgelord!” Cherri smoke up, sending both herself and Angel into fits of laughter. Pentious’ shoulders slumped in annoyance.

“Really? Sir Edgelord? You’ve been knighted?” Arackniss asked. How could someone so small be Angel’s older brother? Not only that, how could he have such a deep, powerful voice?

“Sir Pentious! And ah… that’s a long story.”

“Which we don’t have time for. The pizza’s here, we want to eat it while it’s hot, and I brought Die Hard, the best Christmas movie ever made!” Angel said, proudly holding up a bag containing not only a blue-ray disk, but a player. Cherri had checked out Pentious’ set up earlier and while he had an HDMI plug, his most recently technology was a moderately old DVD player.

“It is only December first.”

“It is never too early for Die Hard.”

.

“So your apartment was damaged in the October fire storms, too?” Cherri asked Arackniss.

“Could you not get pizza on my couch?” Pentious demanded in annoyance, practically throwing paper towels at Cherri.

“Yeah, but things didn’t get bad enough for force me out until a rival gang attacked mid-November and shot the place up. Trying to finding a new apartment this close to cleanse is impossible. Fortunately, after the cleanse plenty of apartments open up, but for now, unfortunately…”

“Unfortunately, he’s stuck staying with me in the hotel because the only other option would be to sleep on pop’s stanky couch.”

“The princess trying to convince me to join their happy little glee club of sinners… I’m about to lose my freaking mind!”

“Hey, if you need a place for just a month, Edgelord here has some extra guest rooms.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh come on, one more can’t be a problem.” She’d noticed the suppressed half-smile side looks the snake was giving the smaller spider, the slight flush in his cheeks. She could recognize the early signs of a crush. If there was one thing Cherri liked more than the idea of her regular free reaming from that big snake cock, it was the idea of an adorable spider-snake couple boy couple. What could Cherri say? The idea of two pretty boys kissing just warmed what was left of her explosive heart. Two boys pleasuring her and THEN kissing each other? Even. Better. And she was going to make it happen.

“Well I… I guess I do have room, if you don’t mind that my other guest room shares a bathroom with yours,” Pentious said slowly.

“Really? It wouldn’t be a problem?” Arackniss asked. “I’d… I’d greatly appreciate not having to live in the land of sunshine and rainbows all December. I don’t know how Anthony does it.”

“One, free rent. Two, hot bartender. Three, teasing the Radio Demon until his brain breaks.”

“If I could bring my stuff by tomorrow that would be great.”

“I could have an extra key made in the morning, I suppose…”

“We’re all gonna be such great roommates!” Cherri grinned.


End file.
